Currently in Portland — August 22, 2023: Mostly smoke-free

The weather, currently.

It was hard to enjoy Monday’s cooler temps with the bad air quality — I had to scrap my plans for much-needed garden work. But, now Tuesday looks like a winner. Temps will be down to the mid-70s and the air should be mostly cleared, thanks to some air blowing in from over the ocean and coast. Perhaps that means I’ll finally finish the tiny wildlife pond I’ve been working on as part of the herb spiral.

I know that beekeepers use smoke to mellow out the bees and now I’m wondering if wildfire smoke has a similar effect. On Monday morning the usual bee activity was absent from the flowering plants that are usually their favorites. Hopefully they’ll be back on Tuesday, too.

— Stella Harris

What you need to know, currently.

Ecuador has voted 59%-41% to protect its Yasuní UNESCO world biosphere reserve in the Amazon from oil drilling.

According to the ‘yes’ campaign, this is the first time in world history that a country has voted to prohibit oil drilling in order to protect its own biodiversity.

“The Amazon is worth more intact than in pieces, as are its people,” said Antonia Juhasz, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, which supported the ‘yes’ campaign.

According to the Guardian, “the move will keep about 726m barrels of oil underground in the Yasuní National Park, which is also home to the Tagaeri and Taromenane people, two of the world’s last “uncontacted” Indigenous communities living in voluntary isolation.”

The victory comes in the middle of what’s expected to be the hottest year in history and serves as further momentum for protecting the Amazon after deforestation in Brazil has slowed markedly this year under the leadership of the country’s new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

—Eric Holthaus

What you can do, currently.

The fires in Maui have struck at the heart of Hawaiian heritage, and if you’d like to support survivors, here are good places to start:

The fires burned through the capital town of the Kingdom of Hawaii, the ancestral and present home to native Hawaiians on their original unceded lands. One of the buildings destroyed was the Na ‘Aikane o Maui cultural center, a gathering place for the Hawaiian community to organize and celebrate.

If you’d like to help the community rebuild and restore the cultural center, a fund has been established that is accepting donations — specify “donation for Na ‘Aikane” on this Venmo link.